TRIP – what is it, how do I get chosen and do the Telstra board and shareholders know about it?
TRIP and CEO Club was introduced to allow the executive management at Sensis have paid for junkets overseas with each year being a new location. It was created under the disguise of rewarding ‘sales’ staff for doing their job.
Each year, sales staff who meet their targets are rewarded with paid for junkets by Sensis. All this when ‘Sensis earnings tumbled 32% for the second half of 2010′. Great use of shareholders funds Bruce!
So how does it all work you ask?
Well say you are a sales consultant, your base salary will average anywhere from $55K – $130K plus commissions (depending on whether you are F2F, TS etc). Your commissions as a consultant are ‘uncapped’. These ‘commissions’ can be up to $200K+ for high performers. The net effect results in consultants earning over $300K selling Yellow Pages ads to the unsuspecting advertisers.
So while Sensis employs over 3000 staff, it is only the 900 ‘sales staff’ that earn $300K doing their ‘day job’ that are eligible to accompany the Sensis executive on these yearly overseas junkets. Sensis spends on average $40K for each eligible TRIP attendee. This may seem high but bear in mind that Sensis, in all of its wisdom in losing 20% revenue per year, also reward the sales staff by paying for their ‘spouse’ as well. That all seems a bit rich to all those other 2980 staff who do not get an invite to these junkets.
The TRIP includes first class tickets overseas, staying in five staff luxury hotels and being escorted daily to special locations and functions. In one trip, Sensis spent $1 million in one night on a banquet dinner in Paris… oh Bruce.
On average, Sensis spends $10 million each year on TRIP for a chosen few 20 sales staff to accompany the CEO, COO and executive board to lavish locations.
It is hard to fathom why Sensis would spend so much money to reward sales staff who are already on extreme salaries for already doing what ‘Sensis pay them to do’.
Do Sensis Accountants get a $40K junket for balancing the books?
Do Sensis Product team get a $40K junket for developing products each year?
Do Sensis IT staff get a $40K junket to ensure the IT systems do not fail?
Looking at it this way you can only see it as a smoke screen to mask spending shareholder funds on executive junkets.
Is there any more you ask? Well of course there is… let me show you our latest set of steak knives.
Say you’re a CEO and would like to go on a special destination each year ‘additional’ to the Sensis TRIP junket. You know how it is, you have worked all year earning over $3 million dollars doing very little and need a Pre-TRIP TRIP prior to socializing with all the rabble raisers that go on the regular TRIP. Just to ease that tension of listening to Grainne whining of why can’t she go on TRIP. Hey Grainne there is always Amdocs (LINK)
Well that is where the ‘CEO Club’ was created. It is the ultimate of the executive rorts. Each year the CEO selects the ‘high’ performers of the ‘sales staff’ that were eligible for TRIP. These higher performers (like earning $250K is a bad effort) all earning in the top echelon of the commissions table ($300K+) get to spend a 3 day exclusive CEO Club TRIP with only the CEO.
You know how it is as a sales consultant, shooting the breeze with the CEO talking about how you sucked in the last caller into buying ads in the print books that no one will ever see. A pat on the back from Bruce and you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
It is hard to believe the Telstra board and shareholders know about and approve this. If you ever attend a Telstra shareholders meeting, feel free to ask the question of who at Telstra is approving these Sensis junkets when Sensis is losing 20% revenue per year.
Next time you see Bruce, Gerry and Co with a glowing tan, ask how was TRIP and CEO Club… you know you want to
Last 3 Sensis TRIPS
- 2011 – Africa
- 2010 – Las Vegas & New York
- 2009 – Paris & Marrakesh
I cant believe that Telstra shareholders would approve these junkets. What a rort!
It’s worth noting that if you *aren’t* sales staff, you can’t travel anywhere, even interstate, without signoff from the CIO.
I know IT staff who couldn’t attend a conference in Brisbane, despite it being within the training budget, because travel wasn’t allowed.
Without the sales force selling what they can to advertisers there would be no one working at SENSIS period. As for IT not going to a conference in Brisvegas. WTF they can’t deliver on time. And when they do it’s faulty. All care and no responsibly is the IT creed. Just look at iGen and the absolute waste of untold millions on a Enterprise data model. The IF that still doesn’t work For god’s sake remember without sales there would be no SENSIS as such the likes of IT could go f*** over another business and bitch and complain as per this diatribe of bullshit.
Really funny bagging IT. All sales care about are commissions. If you talk to production, they are constantly fixing mistakes made by sales staff who are always trying to bypass the system to make ‘extra’ commissions. If Sensis came up with a business model that didn’t requires sales staff the company would be better for it. Just ask Google.
Trip is the biggest “us” and “them” barrier in the company. Imagine the pampered sales staff without their new products (developed by 100’s of dedicated people sweating it out for 18hr days with no bonus), their training material (also developed as above), their iGen (as above + 2-3hrs extra per day) and their pay rates, HR policies etc etc (as above).
Trip stinks and is completely unjust. No wonder Sales Reps are laughed at by non-sales employees.
Family guy you are a wanker, the reason this may occur is called jealousy. They mostly can’t so it’s easier to cut down than try and fail
Anyone can be a sales person. No education or training is required. All sales people do is talk rubbish to unsuspecting customers. Anything goes so long as they get their commission. They couldn’t care less if they mislead a Sensis customer so long as they get paid. It’s interesting when you see a sales person in their late 30’s still trying to do their ABC. They realise at that point in their life that they have no other skills besides blowing smoke into a phone or a customer’s face.
haha, Anonymous, for all you know we may have been working closely together or even sharing laughs while we were topping up for fresh water in the kitchens. A wanker, I’m not.
As a so-called “high performer” myself, I can assure you there has never been a year that I earned anything like the $300,000 quoted here. The most I have ever earned including the “trip” which is accounted for in FBT is $145,000. I have the responsibility of collecting in excess of two million dollars for the company which means that on average, including my salary I receive remuneration of somewhere between 5 and 6 percent of this amount if I am lucky. Our pay is completely dependent on whatever targets are arbitrarily set from on high. Ask how many of the sales staff last year managed to earn even their OTE component. If anyone thinks that production could manage to bring in 1.5 billion in income without sales staff, tell them they are dreaming. While sales acknowledge they wouldn’t have a job without production actually producing the products, it would be nice if that courtesy was reciprocated.